Andy McDowell. “It saddens me that women have such a strong fear of failure.”

Madame Figaro: What is your vision of beauty?
Andy McDowell: It’s interesting because I recently watched a TED talk talking about a decades-long study of happiness at Harvard. It said 80% of millennials believed happiness came from money, and 60% believed it came from fame. But what they actually discovered through this study was that happiness comes from relationships. And so I think it’s true that beauty comes from our relationships and how we relate to each other. This can be, for example, through sisterhood. How we interact with each other can create beauty. I think that’s a real beauty.

I think beauty comes from our relationships and how we connect with each other

Andy McDowell

You are a role model for many women. Is roleplaying easy?
No… It’s the same reason these women come up to me and tell me how much they like me. They want to see themselves, they want to feel that with age we are still relevant, included and have the opportunity to be stylish. Let these different parts of our personality be affirmed, from elegance to sexiness to subtlety… Let these concepts not be denied to us as we age. We still have these opportunities to remain creative in how we present ourselves to the world. I continue to try to represent them and feel that women want to be represented. They don’t want to identify with something that isn’t authentic or real to them.

Women don’t want to identify with something that isn’t authentic or real to them

Andy McDowell

Recently, in a campaign for L’Oréal Paris that was released on social media, you talked about the pressure of failure and how women are judged for every mistake. What is your personal perception of failure?
At first, when the brand introduced this concept to me, I had a hard time with this idea. I was trying to understand their vision. And then it finally hit me. I started with failure. If you don’t try, I think it’s because you’re afraid of failure, right? But you’ll never know if you don’t try. So I think it’s okay to fail, honestly. You have the right to fail. And you can try again, or maybe try something else. But it saddens me to feel that women have such a strong fear of failure. As for me, I had no choice. That’s how I felt. After that failure, I felt that I had no choice because I had already failed to try again.

It saddens me that women have such a strong fear of failure.

Andy McDowell

As an actress, how do you choose your projects?
Because of my age, the roles are few and far between. You know, it’s funny because people have told me. “Well, Meryl Streep is working.” What a stupid remark! Of course he works. But for the rest of us… Honestly, there isn’t that much. If you watch a movie, just look at how few old people appear. Sometimes I watch a TV show, I wait and I don’t see it. But there are so many things I’d like to play… I think the only way to move on is to not be hard on yourself and understand that it’s not your fault. This is what the world has to offer women and I have to face it. I am limited. I love to work, I feel very creative and I am very thankful for the job I have now. I’m in a Hallmark series, I take my character very seriously and I work hard. I give 100% all the time. I never show up unprepared. I always pay attention to everyone on the set, I think about the other actors. Would you like to work with the best directors in the world? Yes of course. Why wouldn’t I want that? But that doesn’t stop me from being grateful because I know there are other actors who would give anything to be in my place.

Is there a role you haven’t played yet that you’d like to play?
This is so funny because I had this conversation with my publicist yesterday. I was offered a movie with Sylvester Stallone early in my career in the 90s and I turned it down because it was an action movie and at the time I just wanted to be taken seriously. I really don’t want to be taken seriously anymore… I just want to discover the heroes. So I didn’t make this movie, but I wish I did. It would just be a different genre to explore. But I had this preconceived notion of what I had to do in order for people to take me as a serious actress. And I don’t think so anymore.

Every year, the price “ Lights on Women’s Worth Award» L’Oréal Paris honors new female director at Cannes Film Festival. What films directed by women have influenced you?
I’m a big fan of Jane Campion movies, I loved the movie An angel at my table. I really liked the 90s, it was fantastic because we really appreciated independent art house cinema. I really wish we could get back to that culture because it was a great way to support movies. There are also Agnès Varda, Ava DuVernay, Greta [Gerwig]…Lord, there are so many. I just worked with Hallie Meyers-Scheyer. As well as another young woman, Sarah Mintz. There are many women who come, but there are simply too many to remember them all.

What do you like about these young directors? What news do they bring?
Hallie Meyers-Shyer is the daughter of Nancy Meyers, and as you know, I’m a huge romantic comedy fan, so I love her work. Sarah Mintz wrote the screenplay Good girl Jane and it was great, I hope he’s still writing. I wanted to work with them and be part of this growing female energy. So I hope I can continue to find new female directors to work with because they are so inspiring.

What’s your dirty talent?
I am a very good hiker. I like to go out with my friends and quite often. They know it’s going to be tough. My sister is a professional cyclist. She is 18 months older than me, was a teacher, and has been backpacking in the Appalachian Mountains since she retired. He is 67 years old and has silver hair. He’s so strong, he’s incredible. And he is much better than me.